The Apocalypse Saga
by lololno
Summary: REWRITTEN Season 02: Tai is driven insane by an old evil, Takeru is missing, and the remaining DigiDestined find themselves trapped in a dark and bloody conflict that began before their time. . . rated for violence and swearing. Ch. 5 up!
1. Author's Note

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or any of the characters thereof, and don't really intend to own  
them at anytime in the future, because I'm content screwing up their lives in my story without  
actually getting to screw up their lives in anime format although that would be cool. :p Oh. I  
_do_ own Mokushi, Karen, Ysa, Kay, Shadowdramon, and all the various other demented  
creations of mine that appear throughout the story.  
  
Warning: This story's violent, and there's a lot of swearing in it. It includes such cheerful things  
as knife-fights, Digimon getting disemboweled alive, blood, insane prophecies and murder. It's  
also rather dark. (surprise!) Yes, this warning is supposed to scare away all you little 8-year-olds  
who read my stories and get nightmares for a week o.o because I don't want your nightmares on  
my conscience! I feel bad. ;_;  
Oh. I switch between using the Japanese names and the English names a lot, depending on who's  
talking to them and such. I treat their English-dubbed names like nicknames. Just warning you.  
^-^  
  
Author' s Notes About the Apocalypse Saga (in exciting story format!!):  
  
Once upon a time, there was a little writer who called herself ChibiCharizard. She wrote an 81-  
page story and was convinced it was really good, albeit unfinished, and put it online.  
  
She agonized about it occasionally but otherwise ignored it for about three years, except for one  
time where she revised the whole thing and wrote ten more pages on it, until one day she read it  
again and exclaimed in horror, "THIS SUCKS!!! Obviously, I need to disembowel the whole  
thing and rewrite it from scratch."   
  
So she did.   
  
--Except I've only written about 15 pages (as I write this little note- it's probably longer as you  
read this) so it'll be more like my other stories (i.e. a serial, albeit a very long, epic-scale one)  
then what it originally was (a hundred-page epic that I got banned from printing due to  
paper-using-up-of ^^*)  
  
I'm trying to make it more clear (what's-going-on-wise), darker, and more like what I originally  
wanted it to be. A dark saga about the end of the world. And I'm warning you- I've seen Akira  
now! o.o Heh.  
  
Another thing- It's been a year since I've seen Digimon, so the characterizations of the  
Digi-Destined and especially their Digimon may be a bit off. If they are, please tell me, so that I  
can fix it!  
And don't flame me because I killed off/drove insane your favorite Digi-Destined . . . I did it to  
further the plot, not annoy you. . . okay, fine, I'm mean to Daisuke because I hate his filthy little  
guts, but other than that, it's completely impersonal!  
  
Quick note: Thank you to all my fans and friends, especially Kurai, Koro, Waichi Makkura, and  
Rosa! Okay, fine, I'll stick Sherlock in here for good luck. You count too. Not that they'll  
actually read this . . .  
  
Thank you for reading all of this note (long-winded, eh?), and please enjoy the story!! 


	2. Prologue

  


THE APOCALYPSE SAGA   


PROLOGUE 

  


A young man stood at the balcony of a huge tower. Before him, under him, stretched a vast wasteland. The sun was rising far in the horizon, the pale rays glancing off of the obsidian tower. They framed the man in a half-halo, illuminating his long golden hair, tied in a warrior's knot and let flow loose down his back.   
  
He was holding a staff, and the jagged crystal implanted in the top caught the sun's growing light, tainting it red and dark. The light played across the back of his black cloak, making it seem stained with blood.   
  
The sky was dawning in bright orange and crimson.   
  
Around the sun's core writhed a black shadow, huge, wreathed in flame. Wings sprouted, and the shadow turned, and it blotted the sun from the sky. 

It passed. The sun continued its slow rise. The edges looked nibbled at, eaten. The light shifted with the flickering instability of the dying. 

_ Mokushi . . ._ a voice whispered. 

He turned, and walked inside. 


	3. Chapter One: Mirrors

CHAPTER ONE- MIRRORS

  
Tai sat in his room, staring at a mirror. Every time he looked away from it, a black dragon stared out of it, shadowy, laughing, mocking him. But when he looked back, it was only his reflection. 

He glanced at the window. It was sunny summer weather outside. No breeze stirred the curtains of the open window. 

A shadow passed over, and suddenly it was freezing, ice cold. Tai jerked his gaze back to the mirror. 

Nothing. 

A shadow dragon with coal-red eyes. 

Tai screamed and shattered with mirror with the nearest thing on hand. His clock. It burst under the impact, and the glass and plastic buried itself in the carpet, the walls, his skin. Blood ran down his arms and he cradled his head in his hands and cried. 

Something laughed at him, a quiet voice, cruel, mocking. The voice from his dreams. The voice driving him mad.   


* * * 

  


Kari sat on the balcony with her legs dangling out over the busy street, sitting several stories up from the busy traffic. 

"Hikari! What are you doing here?" Daisuke said, from behind her. He sounded surprised. 

She shrugged, and then nodded at Gatomon, sitting a few feet away with a smug cat smile on her face. "Hello," Gatomon said, licking her paw in the regal manner that only cats have.   
  
"Look, Daisuke, I need to talk to you about something." Kari said, and carefully stood up.   
  
"Yeah?" 

"Okay. First of all, Digimon Empress." 

"The only think I know about her is that she's there." 

"Right. What do we do? I'm scared of her. When Digimon speak of her, they act like she's connected to something evil. . . like the Dark Masters. But worse. Older." Kari shivered in the summer heat. 

"I know. But I think that we should burn that bridge when we get to it. You beat the Dark Masters, after all." Daisuke put his hand on Kari's shoulder. Kari shrugged it off. 

"Yeah. You're right. But, Daisuke . . . What if it is the Dark Masters? What if they came back? And . . . what about T.K.?"   
  
"We'll handle it." Daisuke paused for a second. " . . . T.K. could still be alive . . . We haven't seen Patamon, either."   
  
"Who knows what happens to a Digimon when their partner dies?" Kari said. 

They reflected on that for a moment. 

Daisuke broke the silence, awkwardly. "I think you better go home pretty soon."   
  
"Oh, yeah." Kari reached for her D-3. 

"You can go out the normal way, you know. Down the stairs?" 

Kari blinked and then laughed shakily. "Thanks. C'mon, Gatomon."   


  


* * * 

  


Dracaemon stood in front of the giant, wrought-iron door that bisected the hallway.   
"Keep out, my scaly arse." she muttered, and traced her claws over the intricately disturbing hammered work. "What's Goddramon got in here, anyway?"   
  
She knocked, twice.   
  
The door slowly slid open a crack. A small DarkGatomon peered out through the slit, and then slammed the door shut again. The hall reverberated.   
  
"You can't come in," the DarkGatomon said, sounding tiny and muffled. And helpless.   
  
Dracaemon couldn't abide females who acted helpless. "Let me in, you gutless rabbit!" she yelled, and pounded on the door.   
  
"Who sent you?" the DarkGatomon asked, through the door.   
  
"Goddramon, dammit."   
  
"Oh." A bolt slid creakily, and the DarkGatomon opened the door. "It's your dark scales, ma'am, I'm sorry."   
  
"I doubt any 'evil servant' wears khakis and a t-shirt, you furred imbecile." Dracaemon growled.   
  
The little black cat looked mortified.   
  
"Forget about it, whatever-your-name-is."   
  
"Ysa." The DarkGatomon said. 

"Right." Dracaemon glanced around. The room was small and dark and dank, with fetid water dripping in a corner of the room. "Shit. You'd think Goddramon could take better care of his palace. This hardly worth those fancy doors." 

"It's Kay's choice that it's this way." Ysa said. "He likes it better." 

"Yeah, well . . . say, what? What's in here anyway?" 

Something clanked and rattled, and Dracaemon had a distinct impression of bright orange eyes and very sharp fangs. She shrieked and stumbled backwards, throwing her claws up in front of her face to ward off the attack.   
  
"What in the hells was that?!"   
  
Ysa was hauling back on a chain, which was attached to a hissing, mad-eyed DarkGatomon. "My brother, Kay." she said apologetically. 

"Shit, girl. And you stay down here with him?"   
  
"Yes . . ." Ysa looked down at the ground, holding the chain tightly in one claw. "Well, it's my duty as a good Digimon."   
  
"Who conned you into that one?" Dracaemon laughed. "You're an evil-type, dammit, go have fun."   
  
Ysa's eyes narrowed into yellow slits. "I thought that you were sent by Goddramon."   
  
"Uh . . ." Dracaemon fidgeted uneasily. "I sort of got in trouble. Community service, that sort of thing. Stock market, you know, it's so fragile these days."   
  
"What?" Ysa cocked her head to one side. Kay hissed and rattled his chain.   
  
"It's amazing what you can do with a laptop and internet access." Dracaemon cleared her throat, cutting off Ysa. "So . . . I'm to get a very important message from insane kitty here." She crossed her arms and glared at Kay.   
  
Kay regarded Dracaemon with a steady gaze, not quite sane, but steady nonetheless. He started to laugh, a raspy, grating noise. "Goddramon wants my prophecies now, does he?"   
  
Dracaemon snarled. "Yes, you pointy-eared runt, I'm already sick of you. Get messaging, dammit, or I'll do something drastic and not very nice, like ripping off your ears."   
  
Kay laughed again, and cocked his head to the side like a canary.   
  
Dracaemon glowered at him, and started forward, claws clenched. "Screw Goddramon, I'm going to make cheese whiz out of you, fucking little Champion."   
  
_"Dark scales,"_ Kay sang out suddenly. Dracaemon stopped. _"Last hope. Eyes in the dark, gleaming red– red like blood, flowing down mountains to the blackness new evil rising rushing up to the light– Light gone hope dead no wounded bleeding red bright red rushing there is no hope left but one black scales shine in black on black on black and the darkness always reigns red on black bleeding emperor against tower one evil conquered by a worse and still the rushing up to the light all is gone."_ Kay grinned again, white teeth splotched with dark red. _"Nothing is as it seems."_

Ysa stood behind Kay, looking sympathetically at Dracaemon. "My brother . . . isn't quite . . ." 

"_Sane but nothing ever is white against black intermingle gray is everywhere shadows fall from light soon to be gone disappear hope is fading fast the flower heals and courage dies."_ Kay finished, then cocked his head, as if listening to something.   
  
_ "And still blood rushes down on black wings dark dragon it comes end of all evil beginning of the end apocalypse . . . he dies so sad. And yet hope lives in one small soul burn like fire is fire two people no three one is fire-" _Kay yawned and looked directly at Dracaemon, bloodshot orange eyes narrowed. _"Fire hid by darkness released by trauma Dracaemon beware and tend your fire hid by black deep blue is all lost I think not insanity creeps up quick glinting knives feed on flesh a flashing light medics is not dead. This is before the darkness on two wings of black fire rushing down spread many evils and still blood sweet blood–"_

"Yeah, I figured that already, Ysa." Dracaemon snarled, cutting Kay off. "How do you expect me to remember all of that?" She glared at him and clicked her claws against the moldy wall. "Now repeat it again, slowly. I want my laptop back, and the sooner the better." 


	4. Chapter Two: Black Hawk Rising

CHAPTER TWO- BLACK HAWK RISING

  


Tai waited in the shadows to the alleyway, knife in hand. The dragon had told him to kill her . . . kill the dragon. . . It'd said that she would come here soon, but he'd been waiting here a long time, and no one had come. Much less a tall teenage girl. He'd come here because the dragon had said the if he killed her, it'd leave him alone, but it didn't matter any more.   
  
Tai couldn't even remember if this was the right place.   
  
Or was the girl the dragon, and he was going to kill them both? 

He heard sharp steps on the concrete sidewalk, coming closer. A tall girl, dressed in black, walked into sight. Her hair was black, and it flowed over her shoulders and hid her face from view. 

She looked vaguely familiar to Tai. 

The shadow dragon.   
  
Tai lunged from his hiding place, seeing in his mind how it would be an easy kill, how he would simply sink the blade in and walk away and it would all be over.   
  
The girl wasn't there.   
  
Tai recovered his balance and glanced around wildly. She was crouched a few feet away, staring at him with cold anger and calculation. She was good-looking, in a feral way, like a black hawk guarding a kill.   
  
He hadn't seen her move at all.   
  
"Did Mokushi send you?" she hissed.   
  
Tai didn't bother to answer, just wheeled around and slashed at her with the knife. The girl, surprised, threw her arms up to block it. The knife sliced across her hand and sprayed a small stream of blood across her face. She cursed, and grabbed Tai's arm with her other hand as he struck out again. She twisted it, jerking him closer to her. He screamed and dropped the knife. She looked Tai straight in the eye, and smiled. Her eyes were a cruel green, hard, coldly pleased with the way the tides of battle were turning.   
  
Tai bit her. The girl snarled and kicked him hard in the groin.   
  
Tai collapsed, and she kicked him viciously in the chest, sprawling him across the sidewalk. The knife was inches from his fingers. 

He reached for the knife.   
  
The girl stepped on his wrist, and ground it into the concrete with the heel of her boot. There was a sickening snap, and pain shot down Tai's arm. He screamed again. 

The girl examined his face, cold blue eyes narrowed, then laughed. "You're one of the Digi-Destined, aren't you? I've been waiting for this." 

She bent down and picked up the knife. "I wonder where you got this," she mused, and drove it deep into Tai's stomach. She pulled the knife out and tossed it near his right hand, then walked away, towards the end of the alley. 

She said something, and the wall ripped open, the floating shards quickly replaced by a spiraling, bright portal into the Digital World. 

"I'll kill you, Karen." Tai hissed. Blood was staining his clothes a dark crimson. 

The girl spun around, eyes wide. "How do you know my name?" she spat. The portal closed around her. 

Tai wondered about that for a moment, lying helpless in a spreading pool of his own blood, before the darkness swallowed him.   


  


* * * 

  


Matt closed the door behind himself and sat down next to Hikari, on the couch in front of the T.V.   
  
"Are you the last one coming?" Daisuke asked, from across Hikari. He looked disheveled, like he had been crying and was trying to hide it. 

"Yeah." Matt said. "Mimi's in America right now, Joe has an exam and Sora can't come. And . . . you know about everyone else." 

"Izzy, Miyako, Iori, Hikari, and me . . ." Daisuke said, almost to himself. "That's not very many people . . ."   
  
Izzy glanced up from his laptop screen. "This meeting is about Tai, right?"   
  
"Yeah." Hikari looked up. Her eyes were red from crying, and her face was wet with tears.   
  
"What happened?"   
  
"I don't know. . . the police said it was attempted suicide, but they don't know how he got the broken wrist . . . from what he was saying after he woke up, they thought it was attempted suicide. . ." Hikari choked and started to cry again, curling up in her chair. "Why did he do that? Why? He was fine yesterday . . . he was . . ."   
  
"Kari, it's okay. He's in the hospital, they'll take care of him, he'll get better." Miyako said, sitting on the floor.   
  
Iori nodded.   
  
"His condition's improving . . ."   
  
"Where's Takeru?" Izzy said, cutting off Hikari. His face was white with shock. "I haven't seen him for days, and no one is talking about him." 

Everyone in the room stared at him for a moment, and then glanced down at the floor. There was pain in their eyes.   
  
"Don't you know?" Iori said, almost inaudibly.   
  
"No." Izzy looked worried. "What happened?"   
  
"The Digimon Kaizer . . ." Matt's voice broke. ". . . pushed him off a cliff. We looked for him, but we couldn't find him or Patamon. He could still be alive. He has to be alive." He clenched his fists and glared at the carpet.   
  
"This is too much." Izzy muttered, and closed his laptop.   
  
"We're going back inside the Digital World." Daisuke tapped Izzy on the back. "You stay out here and keep up contact with us and the other Digi-Destined. If something happens, we'll tell you and you get everyone else to come in, okay?"   
  
"Right." Izzy looked grim.   
  
"Okay." Daisuke sat up straight. "We're going to find T.K., and we're going right now. Miyako, could you set up your laptop?"   
  
Miyako nodded, and unzipped her backpack.   
  
Matt stood up. "I," he said, with dark conviction in his voice, "will find the Kaizer."   


* * * 

  


The sun was high in the sky. 

A small group of Digimon moved determinedly across the empty wasteland. Their eyes glowed bright red, and each wore a black ring. They made no sound. An Airdramon wheeled above them, circling like a carrion bird over dead meat. The Digimon Kaizer stood on its back, watching his Digimon trek across the dry land.   
  
Their goal rose in the distance, a black tower, an obsidian spike against the wide sky.   
  
The Kaizer sat down. He had collected Digimon for two weeks to fuel this raid, and it was becoming increasingly harder to find any wild Digimon at all.   
  
They were dying out, being hunted and killed by each other. He'd found at least one bleeding slowly to death, not even granted the relief of quick deletion and rebirth, but choking in a pool of it's own blood.   
  
Sickened, he had left it to die there, alone.   
  
The Digi-Destined had not come into the Digital World for at least a week, making his life easier for at least the time being. When they did last come in, he had made the mistake of not avoiding them and had been viciously attacked by Yamato.   
  
Sadly enough, Wormmon had saved him. But his arm was still bleeding slightly, and he'd had to bandage it twice already.   
  
The Kaizer looked up at the sky. There were no clouds, just blank blue sky up and up. The weather had been like this ever since he had pushed Takeru over a cliff, and heard him scream and the sickening crack when he hit the ground. For all he knew, Takeru might still be lying there. He didn't have the courage to go check.   
  
It was a lot easier to concentrate on this raid, and defeating the girl who called herself the Digimon Empress.   
  
The spire loomed huge above him. The Kaizer blinked. He hadn't quite realized that it was so big, even after he had worked to hard to locate it. He watched the tip of the tower recede into the sky as Airdramon flew closer.   
  
It seemed empty, and silent. No sign of inhabitants; no sign of life at all but the clumps of grass that waved in the breeze far down at the base.   
  
There was a small balcony near the peak of the tower; the Kaizer directed Airdramon to land there. Airdramon growled, twisted upwards on a draft of air and banked, landing with a jolt on the slick stone.   
  
The Kaizer steadied himself with a hand on the dragon's head, then dismounted carefully. Wormmon followed him.   
  
"Are you sure this is a good idea, Ken-chan?" Wormmon squeaked. He sounded nervous.   
  
"Don't ask me that again." The Kaizer turned his back on Wormmon and the tower, and watched his small force draw closer. "Why do they have to take so long?" he muttered, and then walked into the tower itself.   
  
It was dark. The skittering sound or Wormmon trailing behind him echoed and filled the corridor eerily.   
  
The hallway ended abruptly in a steep spiral staircase. The Kaizer started down it, moving cautiously, one hand on the stone pillar that the stairs wound around, until his eyes adjusted to the lack of light and he could see each step and the new corridor that stretched at the bottom of the stairs.   
  
He walked down the corridor.   
  
"Ken-chan, where are we going?" Wormmon asked.   
  
"Shut up." The Kaizer said. There was a window ahead, and he paused to look out of it. The bright light blinded him for a moment, but when he squinted he could make out his Digimon moving slowly towards the outer gate of the tower.   
  
He felt a hand on his arm, the wounded arm.   
  
"Beautiful day, isn't it?" the Digimon Empress said, from behind him.   
  
The Kaizer froze, and then reached for his whip.   
  
The Digimon Empress twisted his arm behind his back, forcing him to the ground. It hurt- he choked and gritted his teeth to keep from screaming.   
  
"Did you really think that I wouldn't know you were here, Ken?" The Digimon Empress said. There was ice in her voice.   
  
"H-how do you know my name?" the Kaizer hissed, kneeling on the floor. Pain lanced through his arm, and he was sure that the wound had re-opened.   
  
"It doesn't matter." The Digimon Empress released him. "I don't care what your name is."   
  
Ken stood up shakily, holding his arm. He could feel blood leaking into the bandage. The Digimon Empress stood in front of him, half in light, half in shadow. She was smiling, cruelly, and the sunlight from the window reflected off of the small metal spikes in her shoulder-plates. Her eyes were a cold green.   
  
Ken noticed she had a bloodied bandage around her left hand.   
  
"What is your name?" he asked.   
  
"Why do you care?" the Digimon Empress said.   
  
"You know mine."   
  
"Karen." The Digimon Empress turned and began to walk down the corridor, her black cape swishing behind her.   
  
Ken watched her go, confused.   
  
Karen stopped. "Come!" she snapped, without even looking back at him.   
  
Ken followed, if only because he was afraid of getting hurt. After a while, he realized he hadn't seen Wormmon.   
  
"Where's Wormmon?"   
  
"Maybe he got lost." Karen replied, and laughed. Ken shivered.   
Karen stopped in front of a huge, locked door and keyed in a code, too quickly for Ken to catch. The wall rumbled and creaked, and the door growled open. Light pored through the open doorway, flooding the dark keep.   
  
Karen walked out into the inner courtyard of the tower.   
  
A lone Digimon, very tall, leaned against the wall, clad in grey armor and a huge, black cloak. It bowed to Karen, almost mockingly. "Good morning, milady."it grated.   
  
It took Ken a moment to realize that the Digimon had three arms, one of which terminated in a gun. The other two ended in clawed gauntlets.   
  
The Digimon glanced over at Ken. "Who is that?"   
  
"Nothing important, DeviCybermon." Karen said, dismissivly. "There are some Digimon destroying the main gate. Go dispose of them."   
  
"Very well, milady." DeviCybermon drew two swords and walked gracefully to the inner gate, despite the heavy armor he wore. "Coward." he added conversationally as he passed Ken.   
  
There was a thud, and the walls of the tower trembled. Roaring from outside of the tower echoed in the courtyard.   
  
Karen looked annoyed. "Could you possibly go any slower?!"   
  
"Actually, yes." DeviCybermon said, mocking her.   
  
The gate slid open, and DeviCybermon turned his back on Karen. She glared at him.   
  
Ken, seeing his only chance to escape, sprinted for the gate, as fast as he could run. He had gotten two steps when Karen tripped him and kicked him viciously in the ribs.   
  
"Don't ever try to run again." she snarled, the last thing he saw before he blacked out.   


* * * 

  


A young man with long blond hair walked out onto the tower balcony. He watched DeviCybermon, laughing and mocking, killing Ken's Digimon as if he were dancing with them.   
  
The man turned, and found Airdramon staring at him, frightened, hissing with anger and fear.   
  
The man laughed. "How would you like to be free of the Kaizer?"   
  
Airdramon watched the man closely, as if searching for the truth in what he promised, and then nodded, once. 


	5. Chapter Three: Shadow Games

CHAPTER THREE- SHADOW GAMES

  


Tai sat on the hospital bed, legs crossed, wondering if the staff ever turned the hall light off, or if it stayed on all night and all morning and all week. He couldn't move his right hand, and the cast over his wrist and arm itched like crazy. His chest ached dully, and he was having trouble breathing with all the bandages. 

Tai lay back down, looking blankly up at the ceiling, debating whether to tell anyone what had really happened. But if they knew, could they do anything about it? They wouldn't believe him. About the dragon. 

"You failed me." the dragon said, from beside the hospital bed. Its voice rasped and hissed. 

Tai didn't look over. He knew. He hadn't killed it, he had failed it, it was going to kill him now for what he had done. 

"Look at me when I'm talking, jerk." the dragon said, sounding annoyed. 

Startled, he glanced over. Looming over him was the dragon, piercing red eyes glaring down at him, huge wings spread and filling the room with dark radiance. Its claws touched his arm. 

Tai screamed and jerked his arm away. 

The dragon yawned, and its ebony teeth sparkled in the dark. "There's no need to be afraid of me. I'm not the one that hurt you, and I'm not going to hurt you." The dragon clicked its claws together and smirked. Its wings fluttered, though there was no breeze. "Karen did that just fine." 

"Who is she?" Tai hissed. Hate welled up in him. He thought he recognized the girl, but he couldn't remember from where. 

"Don't get all worked up over that. We'll get her later." 

Tai shuddered. "I thought she was you, I thought I killed you . . ." 

"You did?" The dragon appraised him again, red eyes piercing him, then shrugged, a ripple that ran through its shadowy body. "I must have done you more damage then I thought." The dragon tapped it's own head lightly with a claw and laughed. "No matter." 

Tai snarled. "You mock me, dragon." 

"Much better. You can't tag along if you can't stand up for yourself." The dragon wrapped its claws around the hospital bed and drew it closer, dragging it across the floor with an unholy screeching, until Tai found himself staring directly into the dragon's unblinking crimson eyes. "Call me Shadowdramon, dearie." She lowered her huge head and whispered into Tai's ear. "Now how would you like to come with me and help take over the world?" 

"I . . . don't know . . ." Tai said, suddenly frightened. A wave of icy air swept over him. 

"Well, think about it." Shadowdramon laughed again, and flickered over to the other side of the bed, blocking the eternal light from the hallway. "If you stay here, they won't believe you. You're practically a nutcase already. If you come with me, I can fix that. I can fix your wounds, too." She flickered again and began to fade, until only her glowing red eyes and her smirk were left, like a Cheshire cat. "If you need anything, just call. Please." 

Then only the hall and its perpetual light were left, blinding Tai for a moment. His wrist hurt suddenly, and he turned onto his side to keep his weight off of it. 

He thought for a long time before he finally went to sleep.   


* * * 

  


The Digi-Destined gathered around in a small clearing in a Digital forest, waiting while Miyako set up her laptop. 

"Connected to Izzy yet?" Daisuke asked. 

"Not quite, Daisuke. Could you give some room? I have problems typing while people are staring at me." Miyako sat back and glared at Daisuke. 

Daisuke held up his hands and backed off. "Okay, sorry. C'mon, V-mon, let's go sit with everyone else." 

"Thank you." Miyako watched him sit down. 

"Hey, there's something blinking on the screen." Hawkmon said, sitting next to her. 

"Hm?" Miyako looked back at her laptop. 

A little white box sat on her screen. Inside was a single word: **Hello.**

"What the hell?" Miyako typed _Izzy?_ and hit enter. 

A second passed. 

**Izzy . . . another Digi-Destined?**

_Who are you?_ Miyako typed. 

**Dracaemon. I am on a holy mission to find you.**

Another box opened on her computer, this one looking slightly more like a normal chat screen.   
  
**Izzy:** Hello? Are you in Digital World yet? 

Miyako leaned back. "Hey, everybody, I think you better come see this." 

Yamato got up first. "You contacted Izzy yet?" 

"Yeah, but a Digimon is trying to talk to me." 

"What?" Yamato came over. 

** Izzy: **Miyako? Are you there? 

Miyako muttered something under her breath, and started typing. 

_Who sent you on this mission, Dracaemon?_

**Miyako:** Yah. Could you look up a Digimon called Dracaemon? 

**Izzy:** Sure. 

Gabumon scratched his head. "Dracaemon? Never heard of it." 

"That's really strange, Miyako. Do you know what it could be?" Yamato said. 

I don't know why you care, but Goddramon sent me. 

"I can't hold three conversations at once!" Miyako yelled. "Give me some room!" 

"Sorry." Yamato and Gabumon moved away, only giving room for Hikari, Iori, Daisuke, and their respective Digimon to crowd around her computer like vultures. 

**Izzy:** It's a dragon-type virus Digimon. Why? 

**Miyako:** It's chatting with me. 

**Izzy:** You mean online? 

**Miyako:** Yeah. 

**Izzy: **What's its sn? 

Miyako rolled her eyes. 

_What's your sn?_

** UltimatDrac3001. What's yours?**

_Miyako._

**Miyako: **It's UltimatDrac3001 

**Izzy:** Shit. 

**Miyako:** What? 

**Izzy: **Are you sure? 

**Miyako: **Pretty damn sure, yeah. 

**Izzy:** That person gave me stock tips. 

Another message from Dracaemon typed itself out on Miyako's screen. 

**So. I will meet you tomorrow, when you're out of the forest.**

**Miyako:** Izzy, it knows where we are. 

**Izzy:** Can you digivolve? 

**UltimatDrac3001:** Wassup? 

"Isn't that the Digimon?" Iori said. 

"How the hell-" Miyako started to type again. 

**Miyako:** Iz: yeah, we can. Drac: What do you want? 

The white box disappeared. 

**UltimatDrac3001:** If I'd known you had IM, I wouldn't have had to hack your laptop. 

** Izzy:** Who are you? 

**UltimatDrac3001:** Dracaemon. 

**Miyako:** Why do you need to find us? 

**UltimatDrac3001:** Community service. 

**Miyako:** What?! 

** Izzy:** What? 

**UltimatDrac3001:** Tell y'all later. Meet me by the big dead tree. Southeast, along the little stream you're sitting by. 

**Miyako:** How do you know this? 

**UltimatDrac3001:** I'm just special. 

**UltimatDrac3001:** I track your laptop. I have to help you. You may need an extra Digimon to help save the world. 

The screen flashed "UltimatDrac3001 has signed off". 

"Great." Gatomon said. "We don't even know who that is." 

"V-mon?" Daisuke asked. 

"No idea." V-mon said, and shrugged. 

"Dunno." Armadillomon said. 

"Never heard of it." Gabumon said. 

"Well, I have no idea who that is." Hawkmon said, and looked at Miyako. 

"So, are we going to meet Dracaemon by the tree or not?" Hikari looked at Daisuke expectantly. 

**Izzy:** Miyako, are you there? 

**Miyako:** We're staying here overnight. Tell our parents something, a slumber party, I don't care. Tell them something. 

** Miyako:** Sorry Iz, I have to go. ttyl 

Miyako signed off with a click. "Well, Daisuke?" 

"Yeah, let's meet it by the tree." Daisuke said. "Are we staying here overnight?" 

"I guess so." Iori said. 

Matt glared at them all, arms crossed. "It's probably a trap." he said, stiffly. 

"Yeah, but it'd be all of our Digimon against one." 

Matt turned and started to walk off. Gabumon glanced at the other Digi-Destined, then at Matt, and looked apologetic as he followed him. 

"Matt! Where are you going?" 

Matt turned around. There were tears in his eyes and fury in his voice. "How could you forget about Takeru so quickly? I'm going to find him." Matt turned his back on them again and continued to walk away. 

Hikari looked worried. She ran up to Matt and put her hand on his arm. "Matt, I'll go with you. I want to find him, too." 

"No!" Matt shook off her hand. "I'm going alone. I'm going to find Takeru alone." 

Gabumon gently pushed on Hikari's leg. "Please, Kari. I think he need to deal with his grief by himself." 

"Grief?" Hikari stepped backwards. "T.K.'s not dead. He's still alive." 

Gabumon looked up at her, sorrow in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Kari, I doubt he survived the fall." 

Hikari shook her head, and then retreated back to the tree she had been sitting under. 

Matt walked into the forest, walking step by step until the trees finally hid him and Gabumon. 

Daisuke watched them vanish into the forest, and then looked at the ground. The grass was wet with tears.   


* * * 

  


Shadowdramon stretched her wings out and settled down onto the tiled floor. In front of her a huge throne rose, ominous in the dim torchlight that lit the chamber.   
  
Sitting in the throne was a dragon-headed Digimon, not quite Myotismon. His fangs glinted as he spoke.   
  
"You took your time getting here, Shadowdramon."   
  
"I'll have you know I run on Mexican time." Shadowdramon said, folding her wings into herself.   
  
Vamdramon snarled. His cape swirled around his tattered wings as he stood up. "I expect respect from lesser Digimon, Shadowdramon."   
  
"Well, good luck getting it." Shadowdramon laughed. "Not even Darkie gets respect from me."   
  
"You are an idiot, Shadowdramon."   
  
She laughed again. "But I have some interesting news, Vammie. Don't you want to hear it?"   
  
"Very well." Vamdramon said, spitting the words like a curse.   
  
Shadowdramon muttered something to herself, and her eyes flickered from red to orange and back. "So . . . as we speak, the Digi-Destined have returned." Shadowdramon grinned, and her voice dropped to a grating hiss. " . . . and do I ever have a lovely surprise for them."   
  
"I do not want to hear your stupid musings, Shadowdramon." Vamdramon snapped. His red cloak fluttered in the breeze made by his beating wings.   
  
"Remember . . . Mokushi is rising again." Shadowdramon spread her wings and launched into the air. "Don't worry, Vammie, I have a surprise for you, too." She laughed, and vanished before she hit the roof. 

Vamdramon turned and glided back towards his throne. 


	6. Chapter Four: Takeru

CHAPTER FOUR- TAKERU

Ysa sat, running her claws over the writing in carved into the walls. The walls shuddered, and the castle trembled. Ysa jerked her paw back, eyes wide. Kay laughed. 

_"We cannot leave now. The worlds are sealed shut. We cannot leave, and none can come in, save Darkdramon and his kin."_

"And Mokushi." Ysa said, quietly. "And Karen."   
  
_ "Mokushi does not wish to leave. . ."_ Kay paused, and scratched behind his ear. "I don't know about Karen . . . she's very volatile."   
  
Ysa nodded. The castle shook again.   
  
"What's going on?" Ysa stood, and headed for the huge doors. 

"Don't open the door." Kay said. _"The darkness that eats out the world's soul is here and rending cleaning ripping out the castle and soon it shall be empty but for the flies."_   
  
Ysa looked sick. "So soon?"   
  
_ "Yes yes of course my master is rising again and the world will bow to him he laughs so much stronger now blood drip down walls is his dark power can you see it the dark streams?"_   
  
Ysa turned away, and went back to trying to decipher the writing on the walls.   


* * *

Ken woke up. His chest and arm hurt.   
  
"Feeling better?" someone beside him chirped, cheerfully.   
  
" . . . no."   
  
"Oh. Well, I hope you get better soon."   
  
" . . . where am I?" he said, not quite awake and still preoccupied with the fact that he felt like hell.   
  
"Karen's tower." The cheerful, high-pitched voice was staring to annoy him. It reminded him of Wormmon, but a lot more perky. 

He sat up. A little, almost snake-like, pink Digimon stared up at him with big, shiny blue eyes. Her antenna twitched worriedly. 

"DeviCybermon?" Ken said, still not completely lucid.   
  
"No! I'm Karen's Digimon, Ceamon. DeviCybermon doesn't even really work for Karen. He comes and goes. In fact, he just left again, yesterday."   
  
The little Digimon could have been Karen's antithesis. "How long have I been here?" Ken asked. Suddenly, his head was aching as well. He leaned over, his head in his hands. His long, straight hair brushed against his fingers.   
  
Ceamon shrugged. "Dunno. I only found out that you were here this morning, and Karen didn't want me to see you so I had to sneak away."   
  
Ken looked up. "Where's my hair?"   
  
"I think you're delirious." Ceamon looked worried. "Karen almost broke a few of your ribs. I think she needs anger management. Luckily, they're only bruised. But what happened to your arm?"   
  
"No . . . my hair . . . spiky . . ."   
  
"Oh . . . the wig. Karen took it. It looked ugly on you anyway."   
  
"Where is it?"   
  
"I think she burned it. Your cape, too. And the glasses. The grey clothes you're wearing . . . is that your school uniform? It looks a lot like Karen's used to. Then she went to high school."   
  
Ken lay back down. Ceamon was making his headache worse, and he was still having trouble remembering what was going on. Although he had a fresh bandage on his arm.   
  
The door opened, and Karen stood there. Ceamon looked up and shrunk away.   
  
"Sorry." Ceamon said, sounding pitiful and tiny. She looked like she was afraid of getting hurt.   
  
"Get out, you filthy worm." Karen hissed. Her eyes blazed with anger. Ceamon started to slither out the door. Karen kicked her into the hallway and slammed the door, almost catching Ceamon's bladed tail. 

Karen looked down at Ken. "Feeling better?"   
  
Ken fought down the hysterical urge to laugh. Ceamon had said the same thing. He shook his head.   
  
"I have no use for someone who doesn't heal quickly. You've been sleeping for two days." Karen sat down the bed, and watched him with her cold blue eyes. "What happened to your arm?"   
  
"Yamato attacked me."   
  
"Interesting." Karen stood up, and walked over to the door. "How did you get into my tower?" 

"Airdramon. Balcony."   
  
Karen laughed. "You'll be pleased to hear that Airdramon has abandoned you." She opened the door. "Wormmon is waiting in the hallway. I will not let him in." She walked out into the hallway, and shut the door behind herself.   
  
Ken tried his best to go back to sleep, but it hurt too much. Eventually, he settled for lying on his back and counting the dark stones of the walls.   


* * *

Matt walked. He no longer cared where he was going, just that he went somewhere, and that Takeru would be waiting there for him, laughing, asking him why it took him so long to get up.   
  
Or maybe he would wake up, and the whole thing would have been a dream.   
  
"Yamato?" Gabumon said, softly. "The sun's setting. Do you want to stop now?"   
  
"No." Matt said. His voice broke, and tears slid down his face. "I want to find my brother."   
  
Gabumon nodded, and kept walking by Matt's legs.   
  
The forest was long behind them, and only dry wasteland stretched before them now. Very far ahead, framed by the setting sun, he could see another forest, or a swamp or something with trees.   
  
"Matt, your dad will be worried."   
  
"I don't care. Let him worry."   
  
"All right."   
  
The sun set, and darkness swallowed the land. The moon was unusually dark, and the stars glittered faintly like glitter on a black highway.   
  
Matt finally sat down, and cried for a while, until he couldn't cry anymore. Gabumon sat by him silently, waiting.   
  
"Do you think T.K. could still be alive?" he asked Gabumon, finally.   
  
"He could be." Gabumon said. "But . . . it was a long fall."   
  
Matt stood up, and turned away from Gabumon.   
  
"I'm sorry, Matt."   
  
Matt looked up at the sky, wide and dark. "T.K. . ." he said, and then screamed. "Takeru! I swear, if you are not alive, I will kill the Digimon Kaizer for you, I will kill him. You hear me? You hear me, T.K.? I swear by this night sky I will kill him!"   
  
"I'm not sure that's what T.K. would have wanted." Gabumon said, quietly.   
  
"I don't care." Matt said. His face was streaked with tears. "I don't care anymore, Gabumon."   
  
"Really? You don't care at all? About anything?" The voice came out of the darkness, laughing, mocking him and his sorrow.   
  
Matt snarled, his grief twisted into rage. "Who are you?!"   
  
"I . . ." Two red eyes opened in the darkness. "I am Shadowdramon."   
  
Gabumon froze. "Matt, run."   
  
"No."   
  
"Matt, please, I beg you. I know who this is. I can hold her off long enough for you to get away."   
  
Shadowdramon fanned her wings, the outline of her body only discernable by the stars she blotted out. "Actually, you can't, my dear little furry thing, but it would be very cute if you tried."   
  
Gabumon snarled. "Matt, digivolve me."   
  
"Matt, unless you want to be short one Digimon, don't digivolve him." Shadowdramon settled down, folding her wings into her body. "Would you like to see your dear brother again?"   
  
"Matt, she's lying. She can't take you unless she has your consent." Gabumon pleaded.   
  
Shadowdramon's red eyes blazed like fire. "I assure you, I don't blatantly lie. I know where Takeru is, and I can take you to him."   
  
Matt looked at her. "You . . . know where he is?"   
  
"She's lying to you." Gabumon said, desperately.   
  
Matt took a step towards Shadowdramon. "He's . . . alive?"   
  
Shadowdramon grinned broadly. "Yes."   
  
"Please, Yamato."   
  
"You can take me to him?"   
  
"Of course I can."   
  
"Then . . . I will come with you."   
  
"No, Matt! Please, Matt, don't do this." Gabumon begged. "You can't do this."   
  
"Oh, very good, Yamato. Come over here." Shadowdramon uncurled, unfurling her wings and reaching out with a claw.   
  
Matt walked over next to Shadowdramon, and looked at Gabumon with sorrow in his eyes. "You don't understand, Gabumon . . . he's my brother." Shadowdramon pulled Matt closer, into a dark embrace. Matt gritted his teeth. "Your . . . touch . . . hurts." he said. 

"Of course it does." Shadowdramon said. "I am Darkie's daughter, after all. Just be thankful it isn't him who is holding you-" she lowered her head until she was talking into Yamato's ear, "-because it's agony."   
  
"Just . . . take me to Takeru."   
  
"Oh, foolish boy." Shadowdramon said, and threw her head back and laughed. "I said I _could_ take you to him . . . but I never said I would."   
  
Matt's expression went blank, and he tried to move. Shadowdramon tightened her grip and laughed again.   
  
"You see?!" Gabumon cried. "You see?! But now it's too late!"   
  
"Don't worry, Gabumon." Shadowdramon said, and grabbed Gabumon with her other claw. "I would never make you stay anywhere alone, without your precious partner Yamato."   
  
Gabumon didn't even bother struggling.   
  
"Good boy." Shadowdramon said, smoothly, and vanished.   
  
The wastelands lay empty and dark, Yamato and Gabumon's footprints trailing from the forest and ending in a pool of drying tears.   


* * *

"This is the tree, right?" Iori said, and sat down in the shade that its leafless limbs provided   
  
Miyako nodded. "Should be." The little stream trickled by next to her, and she took out her laptop and turned it on. She adjusted the screen for a few minutes, until the glare from the sun was compensated for. 

"I hope Yamato's okay . . ." Hikari said, sitting next to Iori with her arms around her knees. "I hope Tai's getting better . . ."   
  
"They are, Hikari. Don't worry about it so much. Your worrying doesn't change anything." Gatomon said.   
  
V-mon nodded in assent. "It's true. You have to take things as they come."   
  
"You just don't care." Hikari said. "He's not your brother."   
  
Gatomon looked insulted, and put her paw on Hikari's leg. "I care, Hikari. He's my friend." She met Hikari's eyes. "I just think that you should spend more time worrying about the Digital World, and less about Taichi."   
  
"How can you ask that of me?!" Hikari yelled. "How can you ask me not to worry about my brother!?"   
  
Gatomon glared at Hikari, arms crossed. "Taichi," she said, grimly, "is one person. The Digital World is a world. Can you measure one life against a world?"   
  
"This isn't a real world! It's something that just happened. It's an accident!" 

Gatomon and V-mon snarled. "How can you say that? What happens here is as real as anywhere else. If you die here, you're dead. Is that not real?" Gatomon said.   
  
"Shut up!" Hikari screamed. "Takeru is not dead!"   
  
"Gatomon!" Hawkmon snapped. "What do you think you're doing?"   
  
Gatomon glanced at Hawkmon, and then at the other Digi-Destined and their Digimon, all staring at her.   
  
"Sorry." Gatomon muttered, and then sat down next to Hikari. "I'm sorry, Hikari. I didn't mean it. I'm worried, too."   
  
"I know." Hikari whispered. She stroked Gatomon's head, and Gatomon purred.   
  
Daisuke stretched. "Anything, Miyako?"   
  
"Wait a second, Daisuke. I'm trying to figure out how I got this to work yesterday."   
  
"Yo." A black-scaled, draconian Digimon wearing baggy khakis and a ratty t-shirt stood, arms crossed, looking at them all. She had a padded bag slung over her shoulder.   
  
"Dracaemon?" Armadillomon asked.   
  
"No, I'm someone else." Dracaemon said, and rolled her eyes. "So . . . what's up?"   
  
Daisuke stood up. "Why are you chasing us around?"   
  
"It's my duty, as a good Digimon." Dracaemon said, almost sarcastically. "No, I have to."   
  
"Why?"   
  
"Because . . . Almighty Goddramon hath ordered me to, and so it shall be done!" 

Daisuke blinked. "Goddramon?"   
  
"Jeez, you don't know who Goddramon is?" Dracaemon sat down next to Iori, legs crossed.   
  
"No." Iori said. "Who is he?"   
  
"The most powerful being in this world . . ." Dracaemon paused. " . . . right now, though, I'm afraid he's the second-most powerful."   
  
"What?"   
  
"It happens occasionally . . . it always means change, for the worse. Darkdramon is rising again, and the world is dying."   
  
"What?" Daisuke repeated.   
  
Dracaemon ruffled Iori's hair. Iori scooted away from Dracaemon. "I'm here to help you save the world." she said, patiently, like it helped explain everything.   
  
"The world is dying?" Hikari said.   
  
"That's what I was trying to tell you." Gatomon glared at Dracaemon. "Were you there, before?"   
  
"Yeah, I was. Stroke of luck I survived. Mainly thanks to Kang."   
  
"Kang?"   
  
"My boyfriend."   
  
"Digimon have boyfriends?" Daisuke said, looking very surprised.   
  
"Sure." Dracaemon paused, and then grinned mischievously. "How do you think all the little Digimon come around?"   
  
Daisuke looked profoundly disturbed, Miyako coughed, and Hikari and the four other Digimon tried to keep from giggling.   
  
Dracaemon laughed.   
  
Iori blinked, confused. "I don't get it." he said.   
  
Dracaemon ruffled his hair again, before he could dodge out of the way. "I'll explain it to you later."   
  
Miyako tapped on her laptop. "Stupid thing." She stretched out on her back, and then jerked up again. "Daisuke! It's almost 4:00!"   
  
"Oh! We have to go!" Daisuke looked sideways at Dracaemon. "Will you meet us here tomorrow?"   
  
Dracaemon clicked her claws together. "I would, but you're not leaving."   
  
"Is that a threat?" V-mon growled.   
  
"No, it's a statement of fact." Dracaemon stood up again, and stretched. "You can't leave. Don't even bother trying."   
  
"Why not?" Daisuke said, facing off Dracaemon, arms crossed defiantly. Dracaemon was taller than him.   
  
"You know how I said Darkdramon is more powerful than Goddramon right now?"   
  
"Yeah."   
  
"Well, he decides who goes out and in now, and he's sealed both worlds. Now only he and his shadows can pass through."   
  
"Darkdramon . . . can pass into the worlds whenever he wants to?" V-mon said, and shivered.   
  
"Thank Goddramon, no," Dracaemon looked up at the sky, "but his daughter can."   
  
Miyako stood up. "We can't go home?!"   
  
"No." Dracaemon said. "Trust me, I'd rather be in the real world right now too."   
  
"Shit." Miyako snapped her laptop shut.   
  
"So! I hope you brought camping stuff." Dracaemon said, cheerfully.   
  
The Digi-Destined and their Digimon glared at her.   
  
"Okay, I hope it doesn't rain." Dracaemon shrugged, and then turned towards the forest. "C'mon, Iori, the place we're needed most is back through there."   
  
Iori stood up.   
  
"Where are you going with Iori?" Armadillomon snapped, stepping forward.   
  
"Aren't you coming, too?" Dracaemon said.   
  
"I think we have no choice but to trust her." Hawkmon said, and got up as well.   
  
Miyako stood and closed her laptop. "All right, I'm coming too."   
  
"I was sort of hoping you'd all come . . . strength in numbers, you know." Dracaemon waited, until all of the Digi-Destined and their Digimon were standing behind her, and then they all started off into the forest. 

* * *

Takeru jerked awake. He'd heard something . . . no . . . nothing . . . 

"Takeru?" Patamon said. It sounded like he was standing next to him, but Takeru couldn't see him in the blackness..   
  
"Where are you?" Takeru said. "It's dark . . . I can't see . . ."   
  
"It's nighttime." Patamon said. He sounded worried. "I'm right here, Takeru."   
  
"What . . . happened?" Takeru tried to sit up, but the darkness tilted around him and he thought he was falling, down, a very long way down. 

"You don't remember?" Patamon said.   
  
"No . . . it's dark . . . why is it dark? Am I . . . am I dying?"   
  
"No! No, T.K., it's night. That's why it's dark."   
  
"It hurts . . ." Takeru said, lying on his back. His leg felt wet and swollen, bleeding. He could feel something, a shard, something sharp, breaking the skin from the inside. 

"Yeah . . . your leg is broken . . I think some of your ribs, too . . . and maybe your collarbone. . . there's a lot of blood, I don't know . . . you'll be okay . . . the fever's getting better, it was worse yesterday. . ."   
  
"Water. . ."   
  
"I'll be right back, T.K., don't move, okay? I'll get you some water."   
  
"Okay. . ." Takeru said. He was cold, and he shivered, but it hurt. "Patamon? Patamon, I can't move."   
  
He heard skittering, and Patamon was hovering above him. He could feel Patamon breathing. "Don't try to move, T.K. I have some water . . . there's a stream outside . . . I soaked a rag, see?"   
  
Water splashed onto Takeru's face. He yelled, and Patamon moved away.   
  
"Sorry . . . I'm going to go get some help, okay? Stay here, I'll be right back . . . go to sleep . . ."   
  
"No. . . wait. . ." Takeru said, but he wasn't sure if Patamon heard him.   
  
He waited a while, alone, in the darkness, but he didn't hear anything after that, and eventually the blackness around him swallowed him again. 


	7. Chapter Five: The Darkness That Eats Out

CHAPTER FIVE- THE DARKNESS THAT EATS OUT THE WORLD

  


Shadowdramon faded into being in a large room. The walls were weeping rust and ripped remains of carpet covered the floor, just enough to hide the worst bloodstains. On the far wall designs were worked in something that looked like tarnished silver, except that it flowed and moved and formed huge wings and eyes and claws and spilled blood.   
  
"Ho, Darkie!" she called, and glanced around the huge dark room. "Oh, this figures. I bring him something and it's the one time that he's not here." Shadowdramon folded her wings and landed on the floor, still holding Yamato and Gabumon, both limp in her clutches.   
  
_ "I am here, Ysa."_ The room hissed and wept around them, dark trails of blood. 

The walls were bleeding.   
  
Something filled the room, something huge and dark, gathering the shadows of the dark room to itself and forming a shape of them. The room faded, blotted out by the darkness of the shadows coming into being, and the air filled with the smell of rot, the smell of fresh blood, the stench of corruption that ate out the world. An ever darker shadow was, coiled and looped around the room in insane circles. Dark wings encircled the room, and two crimson eyes lit the chamber in bloody hues. His huge claws rested by his side.   
  
"_What is it that you desire?"_ Darkdramon said, and the room echoed and amplified his dark voice.   
  
"I brought you something, Darkie." Shadowdramon said, and dropped Yamato and Gabumon onto the only place on the floor unoccupied by Darkdramon's coils. Matt stood up first, wiping blood from his mouth. Gabumon only rolled onto his side, groaning like a wounded dog.   
  
Darkdramon moved his gaze, searching Matt with his bright piercing eyes.   
  
"Let me go." Matt said. 

Darkdramon laughed, terribly, like grating bones and rumbling thunder, and it echoed and never seemed to stop. Matt covered his ears and cowered, curling up on the floor. "I will find my brother." he whispered to himself.   
  
_"Your brother." _ Darkdramon said. His voice grated uncomfortably in the small room.   
  
Shadowdramon grinned and laughed, and even she looked tiny, a little black ant, next to Darkdramon. "I'll be going now." she said, and vanished.   
  
Darkdramon's coils closed around Matt and Gabumon, a snare snapping shut on its prey. _"You swore revenge, Yamato?"_   
  
" . . . yes." Matt said, curled into a little ball on the ground.   
  
Darkdramon hissed, and the room shuddered. _"Look at me, Yamato."_ Matt opened his eyes, and Darkdramon caught his gaze. _"You will have your revenge, Yamato . . . but under my terms._" Darkdramon reached down and touched Matt with one claw. Matt screamed and scurried away from Darkdramon's claw. Darkdramon laughed again. _"Understand?"_   
  
"Yes . . ." Matt said, eyes squeezed shut. His face was wet with tears. "Just . . . don't touch me . . . don't look at me . . ."   
  
Darkdramon's coils rasped as he shifted, bringing his massive horned head down lower. _"Yamato . . . it hurts, doesn't it?"_   
  
" . . . yes."   
  
_ "That's too bad."_ Darkdramon blinked, and the room went black for a second. _"If it's any comfort at all to you, it won't hurt when I'm done."_

Yamato shook his head and backed up more, until he touched Darkdramon's coiled tail behind him and jerked forward.   
  
Darkdramon laughed. _"I do not need another Shadowdramon . . . it won't be as bad for you as it was for her. You need not worry about it."_   
  
Gabumon woke, in time to see Darkdramon reach down and caress Yamato with one long ebony claw. Yamato went rigid, and fainted, collapsing onto the filthy ground.   
  
_"Now your turn, my little pet. . ."_   
  
Gabumon thought the pain would never end.   


* * *

It was night. The sky was overcast, unusually so, clouds heavy in the sky, stifling the air and making it thick.   
  
Tai sat in his hospital bed, looking at his wrist, sealed in a cast. The lights were off in his room, and the door to the hallway was closed.   
  
He tried to move his hand, idly, but it was stuck in the cast, frozen into place. It wouldn't move, not at all, not one bit, and it hurt. It hurt, it hurt, it was stone-still, never heal, he would never be able to move his wrist again. The air suddenly closed in around him, smothering, and the room seemed to shrink.   
  
Tai bit his lip to keep from screaming. Blood trickled down his chin, cool in the recycled hospital air. 

He lay back down, and thought about his ruined wrist, and the person who had done that to him, and had made it so difficult to breathe with these restricting bandages around his chest.   
  
"Shadowdramon?" he said, aloud.   
  
The only sound was the rasp of the air conditioner in his window.   
  
"Shadowdramon!" Tai said, louder.   
  
Nothing. No coal-red eyes, no shadowy figure wavering into being at his bedside.   
  
The door into his room opened, light blinded him, and a girl walked in, no more than twelve.   
  
Or, by her silhouette, Tai assumed it was a girl.   
  
Tai sat up, startled, so quickly that the room closed in on him again.   
  
"Do you mind if I come in?" the girl said, and shut the door silently behind her. She was deathly pale, with long black hair of no specific type.   
  
"Who are you?" Tai snapped.   
  
The girl's eyes glinted strangely, almost like coals in a dying fire. "That's a stupid question." She sat down next to him, on the hospital bed. "You called me, and I came. What do you want?"   
  
"You're not Shadowdramon. She's a dragon . . . you're a stupid little girl."   
  
"Do you know what a dragon is and isn't? I am Shadowdramon." The girl's from wavered, no longer solid, suddenly a huge red-eyed dragon, wings extended.   
  
"Do you doubt me now?" Shadowdramon said, grinning, tail twisting behind her, laughing at her own little joke. "Don't call me a stupid little girl, Taichi dear." 

"No. . ." Tai was silent for a while. He jerked suddenly, eyes wide and glaring, and then held his arm out to Shadowdramon. "Get this thing off me!"   
  
"What, you mean the cast?" Shadowdramon said.   
  
Tai nodded. His other hand twitched impatiently.   
  
Shadowdramon laughed. "But if the cast is off, your arm won't set correctly."   
  
"You said you could fix it!"   
  
"Relax . . . of course I can fix it." Shadowdramon reached out and took Tai's arm gingerly in her claws. "Do you really want this off?"   
  
"Yes! Yes, get it off. I can't move my arm. I can't move it."   
  
"It's not such a big deal, Taichi." Shadowdramon laughed, and dug her claws into the cast and wrenched it off, snapping the cast in half. She discarded it onto the floor. Tai yanked his arm out of her grasp with a yelp and cradled it to his chest. 

"Anything else I can do for you?" Shadowdramon said, her voice laced with sarcasm. 

"A . . . sling . . . for my arm . . ." Tai looked up at her. Shadowdramon scowled, and beat her wings.   
  
"No. Get it yourself." She began to fade, until only her eyes and her grin were left. "Flippant things like that are hardly worth my time."   
  
"Wait!" Tai said, staring at her with desperation in his eyes.   
  
"What?" Shadowdramon said, annoyed. She started to appear again, her shadowy body filling in the room.   
  
"I decided." Tai said. His voice was shaky.   
  
"Really?" Shadowdramon looked interested. Her wings fluttered.   
  
"I . . . I want to come with you."   
  
Shadowdramon grinned. "Good . . . but if you come, you may have to fight the other Digi- Destined."   
  
Tai was silent for a moment.   
  
"Let's go." he said, his voice quietly cold, like a spike of ice.   
  
"Oh, very good." Shadowdramon said, pleased, and snatched Tai up in her ebony claws. Tai flinched and then relaxed, despite the sharp claw-tips digging into his skin. "I know exactly where I can put you . . ." she muttered, half talking to herself. "Darkie has been very busy, and he won't look for us in a place he's already been. . ." 

Shadowdramon vanished, and the air in the room rushed to fill the place she had taken up, curtains flapping.   
  
It wasn't until morning that they discovered that Tai was gone, the cast lying broken on the floor.   


* * *

Karen sat perched on the guardrail of the balcony, watching the sun rise slowly. Ceamon waited behind her, occasionally flicking her antenna.   
  
Ken stood, silently, in the open doorway, where Karen couldn't see him, hidden by her shadow. He was holding his whip, thinking.   
  
"The sunrise is beautiful, isn't it?" Karen said. Ken froze, trying to make no sound, not even breathe, until he realized that she was talking to Ceamon.   
  
Ceamon nodded mutely. The sky was dawning an odd shade of red, splattered across the sky darkly. It would take a while for the sky to truly light, to bloom into daytime, and right now it was dark, between stars and sun.   
  
Ken struck, lashing out with the whip. 

Karen barely moved, catching it without even turning around. The whip was stretched out taut between them. "My reflexes aren't that bad, Ken." She stood up, facing him, still holding the whip. "So . . . you're better." She yanked on the whip, almost pulling it out of Ken's hands, and then let go. It sprung back like a rubber band.   
  
It hit him in the face.   
  
"We'll see how long that lasts." Karen said, as she walked by him, into the doorway.   
  
Ken touched his face. He was bleeding, where the whip had hit him. He turned, and yelled after Karen. "What do you want with me?!"   
  
Karen stopped. "I don't know. Maybe I just got lonely, here in this tower all by myself." She laughed. Ceamon glanced at them both uneasily, then scurried over to Karen. 

"You see, I don't like this tower." Karen said.   
  
"Then why are you in it?" Ken snarled.   
  
"Because it once belonged to an . . . old friend." Karen laughed again, and the laugh had a note of hysteria in it.   
  
Ken looked uneasy. "What happened to him?"   
  
"I killed him." Karen said, and laughed and laughed hysterically and twirled around, her cape swirling like black wings lifted by bloody winds. "And now, I'm free, like a hawk!"   
  
Ken stepped backwards.   
  
Ceamon swallowed. "She's like this sometimes . . . it's the sunrise . . . it makes her remember things." 

Karen growled, deep in her throat, like an animal, and kicked Ceamon into the wall. "Shut up." she snarled, hate blazing in her eyes. She whirled around and stalked down the hallway, cape flaring behind her. "You weren't there, you filthy worm!"   
  
"I was, Karen, I was there!" Ceamon said, tears in her eyes.   
  
"Not enough!" Karen screamed, and spun around, releasing something from her hand. 

The knife she had thrown flew past Ken's arm, a silver blur, skittered across the balcony and dropped off of the edge of the tower.   
  
Ken stood very still. 

Karen disappeared into the darkness of the corridor. Ceamon watched her stalk away. "I'm sorry that you had to see that, Ken . . ." she whispered. "She was okay before . . ." Ceamon shuddered, and then followed Karen into the tower.   
  
"Before what?" Ken asked, but Ceamon was already gone. He coiled his whip carefully, and then walked into the tower.   
  
The blood was drying on his face. 


End file.
